Joy to the World

It's Christmas! At last, after all the anticipation of the big day, it's finally here. Mommy, daddy, and I were up early to get the turkey on the grill... well actually only daddy was up early doing that; mommy and I were with him in spirit but our bodies were still in the bed.

Once we got up and had some breakfast (cereal, cinnamon bread, and banana yogurt) we opened presents.

There were quite a few of them with my name on them from the big guy himself (that's Santa, in case you didn't know) but I was mostly interested in the Veggie Tales book I got. Later I got interested in my stocking stuffers and puzzles but the morning belonged to King George and his Duckies.

My Atlanta cousins, grandma, great uncle, uncle, and aunt all came over to have dinner and play. We had a great time and everything was yummy.

Now I'm off to bed so mommy and daddy can do the last of the dishes.

Today was really fun. I wish everyday could be like this. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas too. Talk to you later.

Today in Tucker

Today was my usual day, you know-- breakfast, playing, napping, lunch, more playing, etc. Just the usual baby stuff. We baked cookies Sunday night for mommy's co-workers and last night we baked cookies for daddy's co-workers. Apparently Christmas brings the opportunity for lots of sweets and delicious baked goodies. I got to try a gingerbread cookie and a chocolate chip one too.

I went to Ms. Megan's today to play with Amber, Kate, and Sarah; we had a blast. I've learned to sing 'twinkle, twinkle, little star' ... one day mommy may be able to catch it on video and show to you. Everytime I see her with the camera, I stop singing to go see what's she's doing. Maybe one of these days I'll let her make the video, you never know.

I'm down to one nap a day now; good for me, not so good for mommy and daddy. I get a lot more playing in, they get even less done. I don't think they mind... I'll go ask. Talk to you later.

Photo Shoot

Mommy was off work this past week and we had a fabulous time together. I helped her decorate the house for Christmas. If you can believe it, she actually put trees in the house! But they weren't regular trees, no, these trees came out of bags from the basement and they have lights all over them. After she added the sparkly ornaments to them they were beautiful. I helped with positioning the ornaments to keep them away from Pouncer and Cleo... and easily in my reach. There's a white, gold, and silver tree in the big living room but my favorite tree is the one with the colored lights in the family room. It's got great ornaments on it too. There were so many it was hard to pick a favorite so I made it a point to touch them all.

After the trees were up, mommy kept trying to take my picture by them. She tried first by the living room tree but I wouldn't cooperate (her words, I thought I was being pretty workable) so she switched to the tree in the family room. Her goal, she said, was to get a good shot of me to put in the Christmas card... doesn't she know every shot is a good one?

Anyway, after about 30 minutes of trying (gotta give her points for perserverance) she got the one you saw at the beginning of today's posting. But lest you think that came easy, here are the ones she didn't use. Hope you're enjoying the second sunday of Advent. Talk to you later.

Even More Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was such a wonderful holiday. My cousins came over in the afternoon and played with me. It was so much fun. They read to me, sang songs, carried me, crawled around on the floor, and generally let me take over. Who wouldn't love that?!

Here are some pictures from my wonderful day. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. Talk to you later.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Even though it's early in the day, today has been an exceptional day so far. I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade with all the dancers, singers, and this really cute happy guy in a red suit at the end. Daddy says that's Santa Claus and he brings presents to all the good boys and girls around the world on Christmas Day. Since I've been wonderful this year, I expect I'll be seeing him soon.

To bump up my good points, I helped mommy make sweet potato souffle, a fabulous dish with sugar, coconut, milk, more sugar, oh and sweet potatos. All of those are my favorite so mommy let me taste before she added the eggs. Then I helped her make stuffing from grandmama's recipe. We stirred and stirred and I stuck my finger in to make it just perfect.

All that cooking wore me out so I'm just laying down for my nap. Daddy says when I wake up my cousins will be here for dinner. He made a turkey on the grill and a ham in the oven. And he made my favorite, macaroni and cheese.

Today we give thanks for all the wonderful people and things in our lives. For me, I'm thankful for my mommy, daddy, grandmama, all my family in Guam, Chicago, Detroit, Gary, and Atlanta, my friends at Miss Megan's house, Pouncer, Cleo, Mr. Ribbit, Duckling, Ellie, all my other toys, my mommy, Mr. and Mrs. Salter next door, my new duck from uncle Iyorliam and his family, my books (including the ones I've torn pages and frogs out of), my exercersaucer... let's see, this is a pretty long list. I could go on and on but I think most of all I'm thankful for being here with all of you to love me and me to love you back.

Where ever you are, whatever you're doing, I hope you're having a wonderful Thanksgiving. Talk to you later.

I'm Walking... sorta

Check this out... talk about real time. Mommy shot this video of me just a few minutes ago.

See, I told you I was working on mastering this walking business. All my little friends (Evelyn, Aidan, Kayla, and Kate) take note, this will be you one day. And let me tell you,it's pretty great. Every time I act like I want to stagger around, mommy dives for the video camera. She's so trainable. I know she's been trying to catch me on tape all week. It was pretty nice to get all that attention so I decided to reward her efforts.

I can only go a few steps forward right now before the irresistible urge to crawl takes over but I'm working on it. Pretty soon I'll be running through the house, getting into everything I can. I'm looking forward to it. Talk to you later.

Day Three

Okay, for those of you that patiently waited... on day three of the birthday extravaganza weekend, we went to the Georgia Aquarium. See, that's me in the Ocean Voyager exhibit with a very large Grouper about to swim past me.

In the exhibit, there's this huge glass that you can press your face to and see all the fish- much bigger than my aquarium light at home. The amazing part is that you don't fall in. For a moment I thought I was going to be part of the exhibit (fall into the water) but mommy touched the glass and she didn't fall in so I was brave and did the same. It was great. We had a wonderful time. Grandmama also liked it. She'd never been to the Georgia Aquarium either so we got to have a 'first' together. In this picture you can kinda see her in the background... I was being a camera hog.

Seeing all those fish, and being so cute, wore me out so I slept through the last part of the exhibits.

After, we stopped for fish at Grandmama's favorite fish place in Atlanta (I think seeing all those fish gave her ideas). All in all, we enjoyed our days and look forward to being together really soon. Talk to you later.

Boo!

My grandmama came down for my birthday celebration which turned it into a birthday celebration weekend.

Instead of just one day of wild celebrating, we had three! Saturday was the party, I think I've already shown you all the pictures from that... Sunday was visiting the pumpkin patch. We went to Berry Patch Farms in Woodstock. Long ago, before I was born, mommy and grandmama used to live near Woodstock.

It was a beautiful day and the pumpkins were pretty perfect. I liked patting them and of course sampling them when mommy wasn't looking. We also rode in the back of a wagon on a bale of hay and I got to taste a funnel cake (yummy!)

All in all it was a nice day, made even better by the fact that we were together. Bet you can't guess what we did the next day?

You probably can, but you'll have to wait for my next post to find out. Talk to you later.

I'm the Birthday Girl

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Birthdays are really wonderful.

Even though this was just my first one, I think this is a concept I can really get behind.

Tons of people come over, mommy and daddy let you have loads and loads of sugar, grandmama comes in from Detroit, lots of presents everywhere... this is the life.

Today was shaping up to be a very busy day so I decided to kick it off right... with a nap. After my rest, mommy dressed me in the fabulous outfit you see in all the pictures. She put quite a bit of thought into making sure I was decked out like the princess. Check out my tiara and wand. Yes, I knighted several people during my party.

We all made crowns and tiaras before we had tasty macaroni and cheese, pizza, and hot dogs. Yes, an eclectic menu, but quite delicious.

Here are pictures of my friends having a great time and enjoying spending time with me. It really was fun.

And through it all, mommy managed not to cry even once. She sounded a little wobbly while singing the birthday song but she managed to pull it together. Here's the video so you can listen.

I can definitely say this has been quite the year. This time last year, I didn't even know you wonderful people existed. Or that you would dedicate so much time and love to making sure I was happy, dry, full, loved, and queen of all I survey. But you have, and for that I love you all.

Of all the families I could have gotten, I'm glad you are mine. And most importantly, I'm glad I am yours. Talk to you later.

I think I'm allergic to milk

There are so many things a baby must get adapted to as they turn one. Believe me, I know. First, there's the walking thing. I'm getting better at it. Mommy and daddy work with me on it everyday. And of course, I practice a lot. I do get around a lot faster when I crawl (really, really fast) but I want to learn to walk so I can learn to run.

Then, there's milk, the original reason for my post. I started with a little bit in each bottle (per mommy- 2 ounces milk to 4 ounces tasty goodness) to see how I would do. Well, poorly is the understatement here. It changed my tummy so I cried a lot, which made mommy really sad. Daddy started giving me Mylicon drops because he thought that would help. It didn't so I'm back on 100% formula for now. Daddy said he'll call the doctor to see what she says. I'm not looking forward to trying it again.

Next, there's the birthday planning. Every night mommy's working out details, checking menu's, making gift bags, and so on. I would like to help but I think she's on a roll and there's no stopping her now. I'm just looking forward to seeing my grandmama. She's coming in from Detroit for my big day. I can't wait to wrap her around my little finger too.

Lastly, there's my hair. Mommy was hopeful I'd grow some before I turned one. I think she's abandoning hope. I keep telling her hair is way overrated (see my previous post on hair washing) but she keeps buying hair bows and hoping. It'll happen one day. Talk to you later.

Did you hear about the Cubbies?

According to my daddy, long before I was born I was destined to be a fan of the Chicago Cubs. Seeing as I don't know what baseball is, that was fine with me. My daddy liked to watch them, so I did too. I even liked their nice letter on daddy's cap. He said something about they were going to the World Series and that it was supposed to happen for me and that I was their good luck charm. We even learned that odd song they were singing in Chicago.Well, for a few nights last week, things went horribly wrong. They forgot how to play... maybe they needed me to show them how. I'm really good at playing.

At least they postponed being swept out of the playoffs until after daddy's birthday (birthday was Friday, Cubs defeat was Saturday). He was sad but I was there to cheer him up. See, I'm a pretty good luck charm.

Daddy says there's always next year.

Bath Night

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are bath night. While I like taking a bath, I definitely don't like getting my hair washed.

Even with the good smelling soap and tasty conditioner mommy invested a lot of money in (her words, not mine), nothing can get me to like getting my hair washed.

I ask you, would you like getting water dumped over your head, ruining your beautiful creation of hair and the day's meals? I didn't think so. It takes a lot of effort to get my hair-to-food ratio just right and in one fell swoop, mommy or daddy ruins it, making me have to start over the next morning.

To distract me from hair washing, mommy started giving me bubbles in my bath water. Bubbles are the oddest things. No matter how hard you grip them, you can't get a workable handful. And, when you try to taste them, you get nothing but a bearded look that makes mommy laugh and laugh. If anyone's figured out the secret for tasting bubbles, can you please share? Talk to you later.

Swingin' Along

Today we went to the playground at Brook Run park. Mommy was excited because she'd heard that unlike all the others she'd checked, this park had swings. Have you ever heard of swings? Well if you haven't or if your playground doesn't have them, you should find one and try it immediately. They are the best invention ever!



Here's a picture of me enjoying the baby swing.

They also make swings for taller people. I couldn't do those on my own but luckily daddy was there to help me.

My new favorite, after swings of course, is the slide. I went down a couple of times with daddy. Then I went down by myself! It was so much fun.




Hope your Saturday was equally exciting and fun-filled. Talk to you later.

Proof

At long last, mommy has mastered uploading videos of me... at least we think so. If she did this correctly, you'll see a video of me standing up and clapping. If she didn't, well, sorry. Hopefully she did because I am really cute in this one. Check it out.

While we were waiting for the video to load I decided to go and add some pictures of me as well from yesterday. In the pictures I'm wearing a lovely outfit that my grandmama sent me... don't I look cute? Talk to you later.

Happy Day After the Anniversary

Yesterday was my mommy and daddy's 6th wedding anniversary. They celebrated by taking me out to dinner. Lucky them.
Actually lucky us; I know it's been a busy year for all of us. Busy, but good. Who wouldn't enjoy getting to know me and all the ways I can change a relationship dynamic. Mommy says she'd do it all again the exact same way. I hear daddy agrees with her. It is nice to feel so loved and appreciated. Makes a baby look forward to the next six years. Talk to you later.

A Theme has Developed

Good evening all, I was going back through with mommy looking at my previous posts and I noticed a theme of 'sleep' or specifically lack of sleep, has been the constant in all my previous posts. Such is the life of a baby and her parents. Luckily, mommy and daddy are proving to be trainable and are learning to function with little or no sleep.

I keep telling them that if I can adapt to life outside the womb, they can adapt to life with no sleep. Besides, it's not forever. I'm growing up pretty fast. Why miss a moment of it sleeping?

That being said, I cruised today. I think that's the technical term for it. Basically I held onto the edge of the dresser and used it to move a few steps, yes steps! to the right.

Daddy got to see it and he was very excited. He told mommy as soon as she came in the door before I could mention it in my nightly rundown of the days activities for her.

I've been battling a cold for the last couple of days so I'm pretty miserable. Even though I feel pretty puny, I still was able to ham it up for mommy, my resident paparazzi, tonight. Enjoy.

Monday evening and all is well

Here's hoping you had a good day. I did, every day is a good day here in Tucker.

We all got an early start today... work for mommy and daddy; daycare for me. And, despite the fact I stayed up most of last night and was very tired, in solidarity with mommy and daddy, I refused all but a short 30-minute nap at daycare.

For dinner tonight I had plums with apple mix, pasta, cheerios, peaches, and 6 ounces of tasty goodness (that's formula for the uninitiated). Yes, that sounds like an eclectic dinner but I wasn't sure what I really wanted so I settled for tasting a bit of everything. That's what tired babies do. Now I'm in my purple pj's and working on going to sleep.


I realized today, probably during the time I should have been napping, that I hadn't added any new pictures for a few, maybe 5 days... so here's a picture of me reading. Talk to you later.